A car bomb killed five people today and wounded another 34 after it exploded near a restaurant in central Baghdad, police said.

Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 10 more injured early today when a suicide car bomb slammed into a checkpoint in northeast Baghdad, police said.

Two near simultaneous explosions in north-eastern Baghdad today killed three people and wounded 16, a day after the defence ministry said security forces would expand a crackdown into the eastern parts of the capital, including Shiite militia strongholds.